Interview: Natalie Erika James’ Delectable Body Horror SACCHARINE

As we’re in the midst of a new era of all-consuming diet culture, Saccharine is a supernatural horror film that examines the lengths people will go to satisfy their desires. Written and directed by Natalie Erika James, the film is a timely exploration with glossy visuals that will surely ruin your appetite. But in conversation with James, there’s much more to the story than a critique of trends.

Hana (Midori Francis) is a medical student who has always struggled with her weight, and the stress of school and parental expectations has her seeking comfort in food. But as she scrolls social media, she’s bombarded by health trends and wellness influencers, including her crush Alanya (Madeleine Madden), who leads workout courses at the university.

On a night out, Hana runs into an old friend who has recently lost a ton of weight with a new diet pill called Grey. Hana takes a few, and curiously, she tests them, discovering they’re made of human ash. Intrigued by the results she’s seen, Hana uses her access to her class cadaver to make her own version of Grey. However, she’ll learn that this shortcut comes with a haunting price.

While the film’s timing may feel intentional with our current Ozempic-obsessed society, the story actually began taking shape in 2018 as the filmmaker was finishing her debut film, Relic.

I had the opportunity to speak with Natalie Erika James. On the topic of how this film came to fruition, she said, “it’s always been a subject that I wanted to tell a story… that even though there was this period of going from the early noughties to more [of] that body positivity kind of wave, which was incredible, there’s always probably been… this kind of weight stigma or fatphobia that’s always been hiding.”

Especially in this social media era, we almost can’t escape the push and pull between body positivity and needing to be the thinnest version of ourselves. With James continuing on how the weight loss language has “shifted a little bit and it kind of masquerades under wellness culture, but I think the sentiments are still kind of very much the same”.

And as we dive deeper into Hana’s insatiable hunger, the film gets more textural as it leans heavily into this hyper-stylized approach. If you’re familiar with James’ previous films, you’ll immediately see the shift in the overall look and feel with Saccharine. She’s trading in the moody, haunting atmosphere for something that feels like an overwhelming feast for the eyes. And the further the film dips into its body horror elements, the more gluttonous it becomes.

I really wanted to lean into the dopamine highs of Hana’s binges or the sense of lust that she’s cultivating for Alanya. So we knew that we wanted to create something that had these pops of color and had an almost neo-noir kind of wash over it. — Natalie Erika James

James stays playful with the body horror, though. Especially with the use of macro shots, the film gives harmless treats a grotesque intensity. One scene in particular, I’ll simply refer to as the “Is it cake?” scene, shows the surreal and absurd style the film aims for.

Inspired by films like Raw, May, and Excision, James speaks to how they’re all led “by a kind of lonely female character who’s searching for connection”. Those intense visuals we see are simply an extension of that, playing into the desperation, the hunger, to be seen and understood.

But James doesn’t just stick to body horror with this film, as there’s a major supernatural element to it as well, as Hana becomes haunted by the cadaver she’s been so carelessly ingesting. And those ghostly manifestations are almost all shown through reflections. This relates back to how Hana has a very skewed perception of herself, as James says, the ghosts are “a projection of Hana’s own fears coming out to haunt her”.

While Saccharine pulls you in with its sugar rush visuals, the meat of its story is more complex. Beyond the clear themes of toxic diet culture and the personal journey Hana goes through, James indicates the film speaks to us directly, saying, “you could read it as a critique of us, as the audience, and how complicit we are in our gaze, in our consumption of the images in front of us”. It’s multilayered, allowing viewers to interpret the film in different ways, perhaps dependent on what craving you’re looking to curb.

Saccharine is in select theaters on May 22nd and Shudder in July.

You can find more from my conversation with Natalie Erika James on TikTok.